adding a server 2008 dc to a 2003 domain

[jason2234]

Hi all

 

I'm in the process of adding a server 2008 server as a dc to a 2003 domain but i want to make sure i'm doing it all right and there a few areas i need some help with.

 

Right i have 2 2003 dc's and i'm adding this as the 3rd and later i will remove the older of the 2 2003 dc's. The PDC is named Fred (i didn't name it this ) and the new dc is named dc-01. This is as far as i've gotten.

 

1.install server 2008

2.run the following commands on my 2 2003 dc's

adprep /forestprep

adprep /domainprep

adprep /domainprep /gprep

adprep /rodcprep

3.run through dcpromo on my 2008 dc

4.get a cup or coffee and enjoy my success

 

Is this even right? Is there anything i've missed off? such as do i need to back up the ad before this (how do i do this if i do never actually backed up ad before )?

Will there be any network downtime in this process?

Also i want the server 2008 server to be the primary dc will my method achieve this?

 

Thanks

 

Jason

[plexer]

Sounds ok.

 

This may help.

 

Screencast – Install Windows 2008 DC in Existing Windows 2003 Domain. Upgrading Active Directory Domain to Windows Server 2008 AD DS Domain, Adding Windows 2008 Domain Controller. Step-by-Step video tutorial.

 

Ben

[jason2234]

thanks for the link plexer.

 

Do you know if there will be any downtime with this work?

Just thinking whether to run it tomorrow or to wait for the term next week.

 

Thanks

[cookie_monster]

When adding a DC to the domain there "shouldn't" be any downtime. I don't think you need to run adprep on every DC, if you have all of the FSMO roles on one box then i'd start there.

 

I'd be tempted to run the adprep after school just in case, it should take seconds but i'd be cautious.

 

You do want a full backup of the box that you run this on, including the system state as this is how you backup the active directory.

Edited May 21, 2009 by cookie_monster

[jason2234]

I'm getting confused with FSMO also. I'm not sure exactly what it means or stands for any help

[plexer]

Svrops.com - FSMO Server Roles

 

Ben

[ozzy]

these might be of some help

How to view and transfer FSMO roles in Windows Server 2003

 

Understanding FSMO Roles in Active Directory

[cookie_monster]

They're probably all on the first installed DC that holds the PDCe role. Follow the links posted above and you can view their locations.

[jason2234]

right thanks for the links it makes sense now

Would you all advise i take a backup or is this something that wouldn't really corrupt anything?

[ozzy]

right thanks for the links it makes sense now

Would you all advise i take a backup or is this something that wouldn't really corrupt anything?

 

I alway make sure I have a very recent backup before I do anything with my DC's(make sure this includes the system state) you never know:o

Better safe than sorry I alway's say:D

[cookie_monster]

At the very least fire up windows backup and run a backup of C: and the system state to a file then copy it somewhere safe. Generally this process runs smoothly but it can go spectacularly wrong

[Disease]

I tried this recently and the installer said that you must upgrade ALL DC's in the domain to 2008. So in the end I did not bother. I am sure you can not have just one 2008 DC in a domain with 2003 DC's.

[irsprint]

I tried this recently and the installer said that you must upgrade ALL DC's in the domain to 2008. So in the end I did not bother. I am sure you can not have just one 2008 DC in a domain with 2003 DC's.

 

I would just run it in 2003 mode, from what I remember

[cookie_monster]

I'm going to double check this but i'm sure you can run mixed domain controllers, if you have a very large network with 100s of DC's you can't update them all at once so you must be able to run mixed for a good period of time.

[Matthew1985]

You can run both 2003 & 2008 DCs at the same time (only at 2003 functional level though).

[FN-GM]

I would just run it in 2003 mode, from what I remember

 

You still need to do AD prep

 

I'm going to double check this but i'm sure you can run mixed domain controllers, if you have a very large network with 100s of DC's you can't update them all at once so you must be able to run mixed for a good period of time.

 

Yep you can. I did have a mix running for a few weeks.

[Michael]

1.install server 2008

2.run the following commands on my 2 2003 dc's

adprep /forestprep

adprep /domainprep

adprep /domainprep /gprep

adprep /rodcprep

3.run through dcpromo on my 2008 dc

4.get a cup or coffee and enjoy my success

 

This is almost correct. You need to update your existing 2003 PDC Schema first, before adding any 2008 server to your domain. Server 2003 is Schema 30 and Server 2003 R2 is Schema 31. 2008 Server is Schema 44, so quite a big difference.

 

If you don't do it this way round, you'll get lots of errors as the Schemas will be different versions.

 

- Take a full backup (including System State) of your existing 2003 PDC

- Update existing 2003 PDC Schema to 44. You aren't required to do this on any other domain controller

- Join the 2008 Server to the domain

- Promote 2008 Server as a domain controller, including DNS

- Either migrate DHCP or create a secondary DHCP Server for redundancy

- Force Replication through Sites and Services manually

- Migrate all FSMO roles

- Force Replication again through Sites and Services manually

- Either leave the 2003 Server as a BDC, or demote it to a member server

- Get a cup of coffee and enjoy your success

 

Will you have any downtime? Not much if done properly, however you will require reboots to join the 2008 Server to the domain and promote it to a DC; you'll also need to reboot your 2003 Server, if you decide to demote it to a member server.

[jason2234]

oh dear this is confusing but i'm getting there

 

how do i Force Replication through Sites and Services manually? just a dos command i'm guessing or a button.

 

other than that step i think i'm ready to give this whole process a go

[jason2234]

right well i have offically finished and managed update the schema and add the new 2008 server and make it pdc all working

 

Having a bit of trouble with moving dhcp but well i can figure that out

 

Thanks for all the help

[cookie_monster]

Did the schema updates take seconds as anticipated?

[jason2234]

the forestprep took quite a long time (well 30 minutes) but the others only took a few minutes. In the end the whole process was very easy and actually quite quick.

[zag]

Thanks for this, I will be doing this at some point.

 

Just wondering whether to go with 2008 or 2008 R2 now.

 

I'm guessing we need those DC's to be able to run windows 7 properly as clients.

[Michael]

If you want my opinion, hold off from 2008 R2 until at least early next year. There are lots of reports of 'quirks' with it, but I'm sure in time these will be ironed out.

 

A good example of this is WSUS 3.0 SP2 (which has or is going to be released) to make it compatible with 2008 R2.

[cookie_monster]

There's bound to be problems with third party software when using software that has just gone RTM I think it's good advice to wait for a while and let MS iron out these issues, I think i'll stick with 2008 for now having seen the number of issues reported here.

[Crispin]

We have just introduced two 2008 R2 DC's to our previous 2k domain. Our schema went from a level of 13 to 47! Rather substantial upgrade.

 

Have had no problems so far and are nearly at the point where we can demote our 4 2k DC's.

 

The only server we won't be running R2 on is our support server, exchange and ISA. Our support server will be running SCCM, ePo4, helpdesk etc... so want to avoid incompatibilities that will inevitably be there, especially with WSUS.

 

But not had any problems with R2 as of yet. Fingers crossed.

 

Just out of interest, has anyone had any problems with CMIS on R2? Or indeed SQL 2008? We had some feedback saying to avoid sql 2008 as there are still some quirks that should be avoided...